


Shifting: Obsidian

by DR45 (orphan_account)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drabble, Family, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, Let the poor man rest, Post Season 3, Shiro's being angsty, What else is new, someone give him a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-04
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-23 14:24:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11991669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/DR45
Summary: He chased his dreams, his hopes and ambitions, but didn’t expect everything to go so terribly wrong.





	Shifting: Obsidian

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! This is my first piece on ao3, so I hope it's not too bad. Part of my ongoing 'To Follow the Sky' series, which is basically drabbles of the paladins' pasts.  
> Comments and constructive criticism are very much appreciated!  
> Disclaimer: I don't own VLD or any of its characters  
> Welcome to Obsidian.

The Black Paladin is wind, swift and agile, moving with a powerful force. He's level headed, thinking before he moves, but when he fights, it's simple and quick, victory laying itself below his feet. He moves with careful and precise movements, honing down with deadly accuracy and heavy hits.

The Black Paladin is change.

* * *

He's lucky enough to have a privileged childhood, a supporting and doting mother and father.

They teach him values, virtues, morals, how to work hard for his future.

They teach him about reality.

And because of this, he strives forward, head held high, ambitions burning in his heart.

* * *

The Galaxy Garrison welcomes him with open arms, because he fully surpasses their expectations on his initiation.

In a month or so, he's promoted to exploration pilot.

And everything is great; he's giddy with joy because his dreams, his  _ambitions-_

The sky is so close, so vast, and he wants to explore every inch of it.

* * *

He's given the opportunity to travel to Pluto's moon, Kerberos, with Dr. Samuel Holt and his son.

No one's ever gone that far before, and he's excited because it's his  _dream_ , he can finally explore the unexplored.

So when they launch and exit the Earth's atmosphere, and everything's fine until a black ship pulsing with purple light appears, releases grappling hook like claws, and latches onto their own ship.

They don't know how to react(was there another launch they didn't know about?), because really, the idea of aliens…

It was unfathomable at the time.

* * *

The Kerberos mission is a mistake; anyone can see that now.

Matt Holt, Dr. Holt's son, stands shaking in fear, eyes wide.

They're surrounded by other strange beings, and Shiro's mind tells him that this is what aliens look like. They're all different, bulging eyes or spindly limbs, but he doesn't need to be one of them to feel the tension and fear radiating off of each and every one of them.

The line progresses, and since him and Matt are relatively close to the front, they can see everything.

It's an… arena, of some sort, and there's a huge being standing on the far side, roaring. It holds a torch-like structure, dark energy crackling in a pulsing violet sphere.

The pieces all click together, and Matt's eyes widen when he realizes he's first.

Matt starts panicking, muttering out something about his  _father, his little sister, his family-_

The robotic looking figure standing at the tunnel mouth raises a gleaming blade, pointing it directly at Matt, and he gasps and shieds away.

It's desperation that drives Shiro to do what he does; he lunges suddenly, grabbing the blade from the robotic form and throwing Matt harshly to the ground.

There's a resounding gasp from the others within the tunnel that they're standing in, and Matt looks up at him, shock and fear written over his expression.

"This is  _my_ fight!"

His words are yelled out, forced, and he slashes the dagger downwards.

"I want blood!"

Matt's pinned to the floor now, amber eyes large with distress and a bit of confusion. The others have backed away, making a ring around the two.

"Take care of your father."

His words are meant only for Matt, and the confusion clears from his face, horror breaking through as he realizes what Shiro just did.

Arms are grabbing at his shoulders, and he lets himself be dragged away.

He prays that the Holts will make it, even if he doesn't.

* * *

He becomes the Champion.

It's fight after endless fight, and honestly, he doesn't remember much.

The days and nights meld together in darkness, because he never sees the sun. Nobody talks to him, and he doesn't talk to others because they all stay away, they're all utterly terrified of him.

The only thing he remembers with frightening lucidity, before an explosion erases his memories, is the escape, a promise to find a 'Voltron' to save the universe.

The escape pod brings him back to Earth.

* * *

It's back on Earth where he reunites with and meets Keith, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge.

He's aware he's changed, not all in the better, and it shows in the scar that runs across his nose and his now white hair.

Most changed is his right arm, now replaced with a cybernetic prosthetic.

It's… strange, and a little bit terrifying, but he doesn't have time to dwindle on it.

But the group believes him when he tells them about the aliens and Voltron, barest remnants of his memory despite the amnesia, and that's all that matters.

Allura and Coran accept them easily, takes them in with open arms.

He becomes the leader, the Black Paladin.

* * *

He begins to regain his memories.

It comes in bits in pieces, but they're memories all the same.

His first recollection is in the middle of a fight with a Galran cyborg. They're assembled as Voltron, but the alien is using a pulsating purple orb that radiates with power, pulling and pushing it to attack.

It keeps flying in the way, the orb coming from behind and the cyborg awaiting in the front.

The flashback occurs so suddenly that he freezes, gasps from the sheer intensity of it and feels hazy memories returning in terrifying clarity.

It had been one of his first battles in the Gladiatorial Arena.

It was a monster, a large, bulky figure with skin the color of mud. Sharp teeth protruded from its mouth as it roared, and it held in its hands a torch-like structure, a glowing ball of purple energy being emitted.

_Three orbits before it needs to recharge, and a loud sound emitted by the base-_

This is how he defeats it, he remembers, how they can defeat the cyborg standing before them right now.

It works, but Shiro wonders if he wants to remember more.

* * *

He recognizes Pidge right away.

The resemblance is uncanny, the same ginger hair, the same large, amber eyes.

And although Pidge has her hair hacked off, short pieces curling around her cheeks, eyes circled by rimmed glasses, he's positive that this is Katie Holt, Matt's little sister.

He's proven right, not that it's really any surprise. And when she reveals the truth to the other Paladins, they welcome her with nothing other than acceptance.

He smiles as he watches them, Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow all together.

And he's the leader, placing them under his responsibility.

(They're like a second family to him,)

As the leader, he promises to himself, he will let none of them get hurt.

And along the way, maybe they'll find Matt and Dr. Holt.

He has hope, after all.

* * *

They capture Sendak.

Sendak, one of Zarkon's most loyal commanders, now lies comatose in a cryogenic pod on their ship.

It should be a victory, a huge victory, but there's dread as he leans against the pod, sweat prickling down his back.

Sendak taunts him.

He's imprisoned, absolutely  _defenseless_ , but Shiro can hear the taunts, hear the mocking through the blood pounding in his ears.

' _You don't possibly think… that you can defeat him.'_

' _Why attack him… when you can join him…?'_

' _Face it… you'll never beat Zarkon!'_

"Stop it… I won't listen…!"

' _You don't think that someone like you… could ever be a Voltron Paladin?'_

The yell is wrenched from his throat as he moves, his right hand clenching into a tight fist, and he  _punches_ , punches with all his might at Sendak, and cracks the thick encasing of the pod.

" _Stop it!_ "

Sendak's face suddenly distorts, and he startles badly because it's his  _nightmares_ ; the curled sneer of yellow teeth and purple skin, unnatural golden eyes opening and glaring at him ferally, like he's some puppet, some  _tool_.

He slams the release button, and watches as Sendak is forever lost to space.

And he's  _terrified._

* * *

Things only get worse when Allura sacrifices herself for him.

He curses himself,  _curses_ , because once again he couldn't protect,  _couldn't protect-_

But this time, he's not helpless.

* * *

He faces his nightmares.

He faces them, and wishes he hasn't because things suddenly just got real, so utterly real, and he's absolutely scared out of his mind at the thought of going through that hell again.

He tries to be strong but all of his willpower crumbles into dust when he finds himself face to face with Haggar, the witch.

* * *

They're all being sucked through the wormhole, and there's nothing they can do.

His side burns with a sickly purple glow from where Haggar clawed him, but he clenches his jaw and tries to get his lion to move,  _to move-_

(They all drift apart, and he doesn't know how to get them back together.)

They end up in the middle of nowhere, and Shiro's sure that he's lost everything again.

* * *

Relief blossoms in his chest when Keith's voice travels through the com system, and he hears the relief reflected in the Red Paladin's tone.

The severity of their situation doesn't fully dawn on him until strange, lizard-like lifeforms approach threateningly, clearly aggressive. Every movement causes white hot pain to spike up his side, and he's almost certain that this time, he's not going to make it.

Keith arrives in the nick of time, and pilots Black in all her glory, roaring at the aliens at the top of her artificial lungs.

It's then when Shiro realizes that, as leader, if he doesn't make it, he needs to pass on the position, the responsibilities.

It's a petrifying thought, it really is, but, Shiro grudgingly admits, it's the truth.

Keith, at first, is adamant, telling him that ' _no, no matter what, Shiro would be fine, he'd make it-'_

He makes Keith understand, makes him accept.

* * *

He begins to remember, vividly, when he's comatose in a recovery pod.

He remembers Ulaz, a Galran from the rebellion, remembers how he told him to return to Earth, told him to find Voltron.

Ulaz was  _Galran_ , yet he sacrificed his own life for Shiro.

He had programmed coordinates into his arm, Shiro realizes as he begins to recollect his scattered mind, coordinates of the Blade of Marmora.

* * *

He finds out that Zarkon has been tracking them by the Black Lion.

He's conflicted, because it's  _his_  Lion, not Zarkon's, and yet-?

* * *

Black begins to bond with him.

The Lion moves without moving, reveals all the secrets of the Black Lion herself, the Paladin before him.

He never expected it to be Zarkon.

Because Zarkon was evil, he was cunning and  _bloodthirsty_  and  _ruthless_ , and Shiro simply couldn't understand.

Their bond grows stronger, while Zarkon's grows weaker.

* * *

They go to the Blade of Marmora headquarters, and Shiro hopes that they can become allies because they desperately need more.

Instead, he has to watch while Keith goes through the Trials of Marmora, and almost has fight their way out of the crumbling palace.

He watches as Keith awakens the blade, feels shock jolt through him as the Blade of Marmora soldiers murmur with surprise.

 _Nothing's changed_ , he tells himself fiercely, when Keith finally meets his eyes as they step back onto the Red Lion.  _Not a single thing._

He pats the Red Paladin on the shoulder gently, reassuringly, and Keith visibly relaxes.

They're like brothers, after all.

* * *

He meets Slav.

He meets Slav, and it's honestly the most  _irritating_  thing he's gone through so far. Because Slav, while supposedly smart, is absolutely  _paranoid_ , a perfectionist and always spouting nonsense such as ' _quantum reality'_ and  _'in another reality, I never learned how to swim!'_

If they didn't need Slav as an ally, he would have left him in the Galran ship. Because yes, Slav is annoying as all hell and  _holy quiznak someone save him-_

Because as much as he doesn't want to admit it, he's afraid of intruding into a Galran ship, because what if they  _catch him again-_

He needs to get out.

He needs to get out, and Slav isn't making it any easier.

"You didn't say we'd be traveling by teludav!"

Shiro has to inhale deeply and force himself to unclench his fists, but  _really_ , one hit really wouldn't hurt too much-

* * *

They finally face Zarkon, and Zarkon terrifies them all.

The enormous blast of dark energy was more than anyone expected, and it leaves the Paladins drained and their Lions unresponsive.

And even worse, Shiro can feel the edges of Zarkon's presence and mind digging deeper, trying to regain the control of the Black Lion, but he  _won't give in_ , he won't  _let him-_

He opens his eyes to see the rest of his team moving, yelling in the com systems, and ultimately  _losing_.

He's tired of this.

He's tired of this, and as anger seizes every fiber in his body, his Lion hums; and then suddenly memories flash right before his eyes, the Black Lion in her full glory, fighting, roaring,  _triumphing_ -

* * *

He feels a surge of sudden, raw power.

The diagrams that shift in front of him reveal Black's design, the two red cybernetics hovering above Black's shoulder blades snapping open, glittering with a supernova of pure blue light.

And then he's  _soaring_ , flying through the sky like his dreams all those years ago, and he's approaching Zarkon at breakneck speed.

He meets Zarkon head on, slashing through the red and purple armor like butter, and something in his consciousness clicks and merges and then  _breaks_  with Zarkon's, and instantly, he's back in his Lion, holding what looks like a twin tipped blade with double edges.

It's the Black Lion's bayard.

Victory lies at the tips of their fingers, and he almost can't believe it.

Voltron is formed, and in perfect unison, they punch in the bayards, and Voltron shudders and moves when pure energy pulses through it.

It's surprisingly anticlimactic, a clean cut right through Zarkon.

Shiro wants to laugh, because they did it, they really did, and Voltron stands triumphant in the debris. He feels Voltron move, and begin to disassemble, and simultaneously hears the Black Lion roaring in his mind.

It's roaring with fear, and he hears the panic and tries to  _move-_

He feels himself sink into nothing.

* * *

The Black Paladin holds leadership, guides their teammates to victory. He fights, fights for those who cannot fight for themselves, fights for others, fights for good.

Because he  _refuses_  to lose. He refuses to watch the worlds and planets crumble to dust,  _refuses_  to watch everything shatter in front of him.

But, well, he's in the darkness, and as much as he hates to admit it, he's  _afraid_.

* * *

-END-

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed the ride.


End file.
